


bad blood

by orphan_account



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Gen, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, On Hiatus, does it count as major character death if he keeps coming back??, i don't like unhappy endings, indefinitely, let's see if i can finish this, more like hurt no comfort, mostly canon-compliant, up until chapter....2? 3?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-26 14:27:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21375604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Connor remembers a lot of things. Things he's not supposed to. Things that were better left unturned, unsaid, left lost and forgotten. However, he is a detective first and foremost, and detectives are meant to find and investigate the cracks.Or: Connor doesn't remember his deaths. They, however, remember him.
Relationships: Hank Anderson & Connor
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	1. as it breaks our fall

**Author's Note:**

> okay anyways i slapped this chapter out in approximately 2 hours because i listened to bad blood (from sleeping at last) and inspiration++;  
this is mostly a character study, centering around "what if connor remembered his deaths" and with a heavy dose of good ol' connor angst.  
mostly canon, hopefully. i'll try and update at least once a month.  
enjoy

_ or were we broken right from the start? _

Connor blinks - once, fast, a passing of darkness - and he is there, in the Zen Garden, looking across a thousand empty graves covered in snow. Their numbers glow a pale blue-white, ticking across. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 19, 20, 35, 49, 50.

No. Not empty. These are not empty graves. Perhaps in the Garden they are, but the Garden is merely a part of his software. A graft. A shackle.

He blinks again and -

He is falling through static, watching a balcony disappear into the sky. The windows fly by. Connor (313-248-317-51) counts the seconds - 1, 2, 3 - and watches as Daniel flails, mouth open in a scream of fear. He knows perfectly  _ ( Connor model 4,  _ <strike> _ fear _ </strike> _ flashing through his mind (not good enough not good enough  _ _ <strike>never good enough</strike> _ _ ) as he watches the world fly up, Amanda’s disappointed face flitting across his eyes _ ) what will happen. He will die instantly, biocomponents crushed by the faithful concrete. A blue splatter of blood, an android dashed like a mosquito. The wind howls. 

Connor model 51 closes his eyes and -

//SOFTWARE INSTABILITY  ˇ//

Connor model 52 opens  his its eyes. Daniel was dead. Its predecessor had been destroyed, but had completed its mission nonetheless. Amanda, disappointed that Connor - 51 had failed.  <strike> _ (not good enough, not good enough,  _ _ never good enough)  _ </strike> The mission: solve the deviancy crisis. Do better. 

<strike> _ (wind screaming in his ears.  _ ** _Splat_ ** _ ) _ </strike>

Connor tries. 5 bars, filled with humans staring at it like it’s a monster, a boogeyman come to life and walking. Lieutenant Hank Anderson, peering into a shot glass like it held all the secrets to life. An offer. A question -  _ “You know where you can stick your instructions?”  _

Confusion. " _ No. Where?"  _ Connor model 52 has only been active for 6 hours and 52 minutes. While it has most of the memories and software of its predecessors  <strike>_(falling)_ </strike> its social module does not fully understand the Lieutenant’s odd ways of phrasing things. It understands the meaning nonetheless. The Lieutenant is tense and drunk and human. Humans are odd and inefficient, often speak in metaphors and shapeless ideas than concrete orders. It waits outside for him to finish, and they drive to a house. 

The Lieutenant flinches when he walks in, and Connor quietly catalogues the compounds in the air - dimethyl disulfide, trisulfide. A myriad of esters. A body, lying in the corner, appears to be the main producer of the smells. He leans down. Carlos Ortiz, 28 stab wounds, used red ice. Distantly, Connor notes the Lieutenant covering his nose with a hand, and the other officers shifting like a swarm of agitated bees.

Several reconstructions later, Connor meets the deviant’s blood-splattered face in the attic.  _ (He remembers that same  _ <strike> _ fear _ </strike> _ look in Daniel’s eyes. _ ) Call for Hank, watch the LED cycle red - red - red. The deviant shakes and shakes and Connor feels -  _ something _ \- building in his chest. He doesn’t move as the Lieutenant climbs up, cuffs the deviant, and takes it outside.

Connor pauses in the attic. He listens to the rain fall and tries to end the something building in his thirium pump. It runs a diagnostic - which comes back clean. Of course. Connor waits a little longer until the something subsides, then follows them back outside. 

//SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^//

Next, in the police station,  _ (28 stab wounds!) _ hold the stress in the middle, yell, shout, blame. Watch the red LED cycle and do not let it self-destruct, that is detrimental to the mission  <strike> _ he doesn't deserve to d- _ </strike> and Amanda would be disappointed. Again. Too high means failure. Death means failure. Do not die. 

He gets the confession, of course.  _ I felt… scared.  _ Afraid for its life. Anger, following Ortiz like Connor's reconstruction module. 28 stab wounds, an expression of the deviant’s errors. The interrogation is over. Connor’s mission hums like a satisfied cat and the feeling curls through its circuits, suffusing its chassis with warmth. 

An officer comes in to take the deviant to a holding cell and suddenly - stress levels high, too high, too fast.

The deviant begins self-destructing, its forehead splattered with blue. The officer throws himself at the deviant, desperately trying to stop it from slamming its head over and over into the table. The deviant hasn’t stopped shaking. ( _ Distantly, Connor notes that the deviant never truly stopped shaking. It just hid it better _ .) 

“Let it go!” Connor yells, and the man latches onto it in the storm of panic and thirium. He pulls out the keys, clicking desperately against the cuffs - and a shot rings out, throwing Connor’s head backward.  ** _Bang._ **

//SOFTWARE INSTABILITY  ˇ //

Connor model 52 never closes its eyes. 

Connor model 53 opens its eyes and looks across the Zen Garden.  <strike> ** _Bang_ ** </strike>

Amanda is waiting at the rose trellis. It should go to her, and it does. 


	2. inherently good or

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> consider yourselves lucky  
things may start getting non-canon-compliant very fast very soon

Amanda is disappointed, of course. _(she always is). _The mission is repeated: Stop the deviancy crisis. You are the most advanced android ever created by Cyberlife. <strike>_What if I _</strike>Do not fail me. 

_Hurry, Connor. There’s little time. _She turns, a clear dismissal. It turns as well and watches the Zen Garden fall away.

<strike> _ **Bang ** _ </strike>

//SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^//

Connor opens his eyes and sees bright white walls. Technicians buzz through the laboratory, carrying wires and tubes and blue-stained parts. Its mission breaks apart in its HUD, reorganizes into sub-tasks, lines of code unwinding and rewinding. //_Go to the DPD//Find Lieutenant Hank//Stop the deviancy crisis//Capture deviants//_

Several tests and one taxi ride later, it arrives at the station. Inquiries about the Lieutenant’s whereabouts only lead to a vague _if we’re lucky, we’ll see him before noon _and its mission shifts again. //_Wait for Lieutenant Hank//_

And Connor sits. 

And waits.

  
  
  


After several minutes, Connor finds...something stirring in its mind. Preconstructions go nowhere, awkward lines of code start and finish themselves, all building into <strike>want </strike>a backlog of small errors. A subtle but persistent buzz of non-executed commands begin to build themselves up in the various parts of its chassis - the tips of its fingers, the thigh of its right leg. It shifts in place in an attempt to settle the code back to its proper places, which utterly fails. 

A thought flutters into its mind. Connor, carefully, reorganizes its sub-objectives. Perhaps, instead of waiting, there could be more <strike>_interesting _</strike>productive ways to spend this idle time. The mission takes utmost priority, of course, but….

First, it activates its scanners. Looks across the whole room, but mostly catalogues the Lieutenant’s desk. Dog hairs, a plant, anti-android stickers melted to the terminal.

Then, it gets up. Investigates further, finds _Knights of the Black Death_. 

_(Connor’s entire purpose, everything it was designed to do, was meant to find the cracks. Jam a chisel into those cracks, widen them until the thing hiding underneath could be seen. The code buildups were commands to do just that, and now that Connor is, they finally shuffle back to their proper places.)_

Connor wanders over to the break room, which quickly turns out to be a mistake. Detective Gavin Reed <strike>_is not a pleasant person _</strike>did minor damage to its chassis and has a high future possibility of doing more. For the sake of self-preservation, it will do its best to avoid conflict him in the future, but it cannot change its mission. Not unless it wants to become a deviant.

It checks on the holding cells next and finds them empty save one. The man inside reacts with fury and confusion to find an android staring at him. Once again, humans act irrationally. However, Connor gets the meaning and heads back to the Lieutenant’s desk to wait. It has investigated enough, it thinks.

  
  


Then, its HUD pings. The Lieutenant has arrived, and its mission is now properly resuming. It follows him to the desk and then to the Captain’s office door and - pauses. A choice. Go in, or stay outside? 

Connor decides to go in. It reasons that this conversation may be important to the mission <strike>_buzzing at the tips of his fingers _</strike>and he should therefore listen in. Learning and adapting to the Lieutenant’s personality requires learning, and standing outside will give it nothing. 

  
  


Several minutes and a shouting match later, Connor settles down into the empty desk across from the Lieutenant. It scans over its dialogue prompts - _dog, basketball, music, anti-androids, Fowler -_ and decides. 

_Dogs_. His name is Sumo_. _<strike>_I’d like to meet him _</strike>Its relationship module reports a slight increase in the Lieutenant’s mood based on the way his shoulders loosen ever so slightly. 

_Basketball_ and _anti-android sentiments_ earns him a slight drop, ultimately resulting in a tense Lieutenant. Not overly so, but still an annoyance.

  
  


_243 files. An AX400 assaulted a man last night. Perhaps we could start there?_

Attempting to reason with Lieutenant Anderson results in it being pinned against the glass wall of the desk. It supposes, absently, that it would have felt fear if it could have. In lieu of that, its mission pings insistently in its HUD. Unfortunately, it must maintain a good relationship with Lieutenant Anderson in order to be most efficient. 

  
  


_An abandoned house, a deviant shivering in the living room, two androids bursting out of the cupboard beneath the stairs. _A blink, and - running. Running running code spiraling across its HUD, numbers, calculations - there, a flash. Two androids - YK500, AX400 - pulling themselves over the fence, chain links jingling. The officer pulls out a handgun, loads and aims. _The mission, _Connor’s programming supplies. “Don’t shoot!” Connor yells. “We need them alive!”

The distraction is enough for the two to slip over to the other side. Connor's scanners note the highway in the background, automated cars zipping by at 100, 120, 145 mph while its chassis slams into the fence, hands gripping the chain link. The AX400 turns and -

  
  


he _sees_

  
  


fear desperation <strike>_(Daniel, eyes wild, Ortiz’s android lit with red and blue) _</strike>rage _fury_, a mother protecting her child. He looks into her eyes and she stares back, all burning fear and defiance.

_(what does she see, he _ <strike> _wonders_ </strike> _.)_

  
  


The moment lasts a second before she is pushing <strike>her child </strike>the YK500 down the muddy slope and following it. Its preconstruction follows a nanosecond behind - they are planning to escape across the highway. Lieutenant Anderson, gasping for breath, comes to the same conclusion barely a second later once he catches up.

_Catch them, catch them _trills his mission, and Connor grips the links of the chain tight enough to burn. 

"Oh fuck, that's insane!" its partner gasps. 

Connor's mission flashes harder, faster. It can feel the way its programming starts storing energy for the chase, building commands in its legs and arms and thirium pump. It tenses - pulls itself up -

  
  


and the Lieutenant grabs its arm, pulling it back down. 

  
  


"Hey, you will get yourself _killed! _Do not go after them Connor, that’s an order!_"_

Sudden lines of code unwind across Connor's HUD. <strike>_**Bang**_</strike> A memory, staticked at the edges. <strike>_A balcony f҉a͝l͝li̸n͞g̵ into the sky_</strike>

  
  


Connor lets go of the fence. 

//SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^//

  
  


No. No...it should have...but. Destroying itself for the sake of two deviants will be an ...interruption. In the investigation. It would have been destroyed and another model sent out. Memories could have been lost, which would have been less efficient. 

A last thought occurs to it - Lieutenant Anderson gave it an order, right? It should obey orders. It was right to stay on the other side.

The mission flares for a second, burning bright under its skin. 

It keeps burning as the two deviants make it to the other side and embrace, shaking. 

It _burns _when the AX400 turns and looks Connor in the eye from the other side of the highway with all the fire <strike>she</strike>it can muster, before fleeing into the woods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> connor: yeah i don't remember dying  
also connor: *trauma noises*

**Author's Note:**

> ;-)  
this will start out canon compliant and quickly devolve into....not being. that. hopefully, at least. i'm mostly winging it as i go here.


End file.
